My wheel has been tucked into a closet for months upon months. I honestly don’t remember the last time I spun on it, but at some point I started spinning some fiber I dyed on one of my annual knitting weekends. The yarn is thicker than I normally spin it, but that’s on purpose – I just don’t have it in me to spin and knit something lace weight right now with my limited time. And, besides, thicker/squishy knits are just as lovely as the lightest lace.

I find myself coming a bit more each month out of a… fog of sorts. Maybe it’s just finally getting into this motherhood thing 2.5 years in, maybe it’s the new job that has given me purpose again, or maybe I’m just learning more of who I am now that I’ve changed. I’ve put aside a lot of my old fantasies in my life, like all the handmade sweaters and clothes I imagined I’d make for my son. He’s already outgrown a lot of the projects I planned on, and he’ll most likely outgrow the ones left on the list before I get them made. We pulled most of the garden up this fall, and this year will be tackling a much smaller, more manageable plot. I donated a large portion of my fabric stash that I won’t ever get around to, or are from projects I’ve decided to move on from (like making my own clothes, which is especially unnecessary with a work-provided uniform).

I’m at a point in life where I feel like things just need to change and evolve. I tend to make things more complicated than it needs to be, and I’m learning to embrace simplicity in a way I haven’t embraced before. Less is more, these days – meals are basic and nothing to really write about, our schedules are less busy partially by design, but also partially because we’re in that winter germ-fest that leaves at least one of us sick week-to-week, and life is, generally, pretty boring. I get up, go to work, sometimes hit the gym, and then come home and cook dinner and let my son watch more cartoons than I’d like to have 20 minutes to cook in peace before we settle in, eat, take baths, and snuggle up for bed.

I miss the times where I felt like I had something to say and write here. The photos I used to take and share as I went about my day. The things I used to do to fill my time. And now, today, I wonder how I had so much time to do any of that when just making coffee some mornings feels like too much work.

The tattoo on my back is a tree, with the word “grow” underneath. The older I get, the more meaningful that becomes. My roots are still here, and my heart is still in it, but as I grow older and move through these seasons I shed leaves and branches and new ones take their place. As a tree grows and matures, so do I.

I’ve officially started holiday crafting. I’m not sure this is the best idea, given time constraints and all, but I’m giving it a good go anyway. I’m trying to keep my plans fairly simple – some knit fingerless mitts, a few knitting project bags, maybe a hat or two?

Do you recognize that yarn? That’s the recent spinning from Tour de Fleece. It’s LOVELY. I was a bit worried that my spinning would ruin the loveliness that is malabrigo, but the finished yarn is SO soft. The mitts feel lovely on your hands. I didn’t use a pattern – I couldn’t find anything I liked – so I just kind of winged it. The great thing is that this project is using only a little bit of the yarn, so I’ll have plenty left for at least a second pair. Maybe even enough for a small pair for the Little Mister. These knit up so quickly, which is a nice change from all the other projects I keep starting.

My Tour de Fleece is kinda sorta done. Well, mostly done. I plied together everything I had spun and all that’s left is the single left on the one bobbin, which I now need to wind into a center pull ball and ply together with itself. It only took me far longer to get it done than I thought it would… so much for pushing myself to spin more during the race.

Fiber is Malabrigo Nube… indecita colorway, I think? The baby toddler found the tag and I’ve since lost track of it, but looking online it looks to be the right color. Final yardage (and subsequent final knit object) to be determined.

I found some inspiration to cook a bit more this weekend, fueled by both watching MasterChef and seeing how much we’ve been spending on eating out lately. Our weekday routine is pretty hectic with me trying to work out so there’s been a lot of fast food runs and I’m not proud or happy about it. Since we didn’t have anything on the schedule for the weekend I decided to make these Thai pork & veggie meatballs. I made them a while ago and loved them, but never really made them again afterward. It’s not like they’re hard – just sometimes the idea of cooking a meal seems more daunting than it really is. Since the recipe makes more than enough for us, I divided the meat mixture in half and froze one part for later. That way – hopefully – I won’t be hitting the fast food line the next time we’re in a pinch.

This morning I tried getting back into my Breakfast Sunday routine. Homemade raspberry muffins with garden-fresh berries I picked the other day. Every year I think I should just rip those canes out – they’re probably going to destroy the foundation of the house – but then every year I get these delicious berries and forget about that idea. The muffin recipe itself is lacking – it came from a Better Homes & Gardens cookbook in the cabinet that I never use because every time I do I realize why I ignore it. So my new goal is to find a muffin recipe I love that is good enough to go in the family recipes cookbook with the other tried-and-true favorites.

Rain is coming our way again. So no outdoor spinning. I did manage to finish one bobbin last night, which was one half of the 4oz braid. I’m trying to spin it thicker than normal on my lace flyer so it’ll add twist faster. I’m a bit nervous about what the finished product is going to end up being, but it sure looks pretty at the moment on the bobbin. The fact that this has spun up fairly quickly since I’m not trying to go for thin specifically has me thinking about ordering a few braids of fiber on Etsy and making a throw blanket for the guest bedroom/craft room that I’m working on. I just have to figure out what colors I want – everything in my house is some sort of blue or green since it’s so calming, and I’m not sure if I should stick with that or if I should try to incorporate some other color into it. Maybe I’ll kill some time on Etsy and see what jumps out at me.

In an act of rebellion, women took to their spinning wheels, their knitting needles, and their looms. If you were a Patriot, you wore homemade clothes from homespun yarn.

You know, this is something I can really get behind. I don’t really attend any kind of 4th of July BBQ or anything and I rarely make a big deal out of the holiday, though now that we have the kid I feel like I should step up my game a bit. But spinning and knitting? Yeah, I’m down with that. Can we just trade out the usual over-the-top patriotism of the 4th of July with more of a low-key BBQ and spin/knit-in? Because I will gladly scrub my house and buy a bunch of burgers and steaks to feed everyone if that’s the kid of celebration we’re going to have.

Anyway.

Tour de France starts tomorrow, which means Tour de Fleece starts as well. I wasn’t sure if I was going to even participate this year – I haven’t spun anything since last year before the baby. But, with part of my “look for happiness in the little things” idea from yesterday, I decided I need to do it. The weather is nice, and I always love being out on the patio, so it’s a perfect excuse to do both after the baby goes to bed and take some time to do something that makes me happy.

I won’t be able to spin every day, nor am I spinning my traditional thin yarn, but it’s spinning and making and creating, which is something I’ve been needing to do more. I decided to start a bit early and go ahead and spin a bit. The fiber is Malabrigo Nube, and it’s what I picked up on my annual yarn shopping trip this year. I’m using my lace flyer but I’m trying to spin it thicker than usual so it a. doesn’t take a year to finish and b. will be something thicker to knit up that also won’t take a year to finish. I’m hoping the lace flyer will help keep the twist nice and bouncy once I ply it up. I’m not sure what I’m planning yet to knit it into – probably a hat. Not that I need more hats. Maybe I’ll pair it with some stash yarn for a baby cardigan or something? I figure if I knit up a few things here and there in different sizes then I’ll have some gift knits in the future and won’t have to stress over not being able to get something knit up in time.

Or, maybe (most likely, really), it’ll just sit in a plastic bin with the other hand spun until I get around to deciding what to make out of it.

Welcome

Pardon the garden. A phrase I’m most likely to utter anytime anyone visits the house during the growing seasons of spring through fall. Sure, there are pretty flowers and delicious veggies in there somewhere, but they might be a little hard to find amidst the mess of overgrown grass, dandelions, and weeds that have found their way in there and haven’t been pulled. Read On